The garden yard — Themes and Context

the engine, the only question is whether it would pay to make it do any more—it may cost too much. Where land is cheap, labor is high; there intelligent cultivation will pay, but intensive cultivation will not. That is the place where the field crops should be raised.

But the garden crops should be raised right round the towns and cities and it is foolish to get to a distance from them. Stay right where you are and get the piece of land that is best for your purpose; buy it, if you can without paying too much for it; if not, rent it for as long a term as you can; or get permission to use the bit of land, the vacant lots—there are plenty even in the most crowded cities—and raise your truck and your income on those lots. Without separating yourself from your acquaintances or exiling your wife and children, learn to get your living out of the earth.

Suppose that a man owns his house, even if it be but a bit of a bungalow, and suppose he has a little bit of land on which he can raise the most of what the family eats; he may have to work hard, especially if his family cannot help in the work, but at least he is independent; at least panics, lock-outs, change of circumstances or even loss of health will not reduce him to starvation.

If you have a farm, Intensive Cultivation should interest you all the more. Every farm is full of opportunities to make good money; but you must not make the usual mistake of half working a big piece of land; that means that you will always be overworked, always have a lot of things that you know ought to be done, but cannot find time to do; always have common grade crops that bring common prices. Everyone that is overworked is underpaid, for he cannot do his best work.

Use the big fields for pasture, or for raising fine horses, or for pigs or Angora goats or even for sheep; you had better let the fields run wild rather than half cultivate them.

Keep accounts and watch your chance to sell all the land that does not pay well. It may be that you are missing a fortune in the old neglected orchard, or in the chestnut or hickory grove. The black walnuts or butternuts, that are usually left for the neighbors’ boys, may be the most profitable part of the farm.

The wood-lot may have possibilities for barrel hoops, which may be sold to the improvement of the timber. It may need only thinning to bring you a steady income while it increases in value.

Fine apples grafted on the old trees that now bear only cider apples, if properly sprayed and thinned so as to give first-class fruit, may sell for more than all the corn you can raise.[1]

The “pesky briers” that the farmer struggles with year by year, may be the raspberries and blackberries that will sell readily for good prices, when they are cultivated, to the summer residents or boarding-houses. Your exposure and soil may be just the place for the fine strawberries with which, when nicely separated from the second and third grades, no market is ever overstocked.

But if you are always behind with the work and always short of cash or worried to pull through, you have no time to think of these things and no means to hire labor nor to develop them.

That pond may be needed, if it were cleared out, for a profitable ice supply, furnishing paying work in the winter. The stream may be a valuable water-power or at least may bring a high-priced crop of water-cress; or it may be the very water needed, when properly distributed, to make yours the most fertile land in the county. The bit of swamp land, that raises nothing but mosquitoes, may need only a few dollars’ worth of cranberry sets to be the best paying acre in the country side.

There may be a veritable gold mine in a neglected quarry, or brick-clay pit, or kaolin clay deposit, or in a sand bank, or a vein of marl.

Possibly you could rent the farm house or let camping sites for the summer to people who would pay city prices for much of your stuff; so that you could afford to keep help enough to leave only the easy work of superintendence for you. Brains save more work than machines.

If you are raising the same crops that your neighbors do, harvesting at the same time, and getting the same prices that everyone else does, you may be sure that you are neglecting your chances.

The money is in finding things to raise that will sell, and that do not have to compete with all the others.

Says the _Farm Journal_: “Farmers need more time to plan their work and look after the business and economic end of their calling. The employer who makes a full hand in barn and field from 5 A. M. till 8 P. M., has no other time to devote to the real business of the farm than the hours in which Nature imperatively calls upon him to rest, and a man with aching muscles and tired limbs is not in condition to think clearly or plan intelligently. It is poor economy for a farmer to take the place of a dollar-a-day man in the field, when in so doing he has left no leisure in which to work out the details of his operations.”

Think—think—it is true that we ourselves must work with the men if we are to get the best work out of them; there is a big difference between saying “Go, do that,” and “Come and let us do this.” But it is not enough to work; any jackass can do that.

You know the old fable: “A farmer got his wheels stuck fast in a miry road. The man knelt down in the mud crying to Hercules to come and help him. Said Hercules, “Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel, I help only those who help themselves!”

(There is a new part to that fable)—Now the mire was very deep and even Hercules’ help was not enough; so he called on Pallas, the Goddess of Wisdom. Said she, “Put this lever under the wheel.” Then the wagon was easily lifted out.

Since then, some one else suggested using wide tires, so that the wheels would not sink at all, and another invented a split-log road-drag to keep the roads hard. But we are still waiting for the farmers to learn to use them.

Maybe the roses in the bit of garden would bring you bigger money, if they were made to bloom at the right time, than the potatoes that take twice as much outlay and ten times as much work.

Pick out as much land as you can attend to without walking your legs off, and raise on it the best crops that bring the best prices and let the rest take care of itself.

The market is more important than the crop. Consult the editors of your agricultural papers about where to sell. Require bank reference from any commission merchant that you do not know, and write to the bank for its report on him before you ship to him. Make his acquaintance, if possible, and talk to him about what he can sell the best; naturally, he will take more interest in the affairs of a man that he knows than in a stranger. Don’t go to town or to the boat or railroad with half a load or with a load of poor stuff. Arrange with your neighbors to take enough for them to make your trip pay.

If a trolley or a carrier can be brought into use to make regular shipments, see some merchant or hotel man and arrange to supply him constantly. Then lay out your plantings so as to have a constant supply of what he needs.

If you are choosing a farm or have a chance to sell yours, inquire and look to see if you can find one near a good market where you will earn your own commissions. The way to find out what you want is to talk about it to everyone you meet. A good local map will help you, but of course the real estate agents know more about what is for sale and the prices and values than you could learn in a year’s travel. No men, except editors and hotel clerks, are so ready to give information as the real estate agents. Remember, however, than even when they are honest (most of them are, like the rest of us, as honest as circumstances allow), the successful real estate agent must see the rosy side of the peach and may not point out the worm-hole on the other side. You will have to look for that yourself.

When you have found what you want, point out that you are buying to improve, so that the security will be better every day, and fight for easy terms and for a long mortgage. You can get the privilege to pay off any time that you cannot use the capital to better advantage.

Let some good lawyer examine the records and see that the papers are all straight, and guarantee the title. If there is a local title insurance company its policy is worth all it costs, and will help you greatly should you want to sell or to raise another mortgage.

Buy your land—don’t rent it; it does not pay to put your work into another man’s land.

Every improvement in the condition of the earth—agricultural, mechanical, ethical, educational, political or even religious must go eventually and mainly to the benefit of the owners of the earth; therefore get hold of a bit of the earth, so that everyone who does good will do that good for you.

Get a small bit of land near the market rather than a big bit away from it, because the more people there are near you the better you can live and the more money you can make. Besides it is much pleasanter and better for the wife and children, as well as for yourself, to be near schools, libraries, proper company, stores, than to be away out among stumps. A growing town will make you rich when it grows out your way, because you are in the way and when the land is wanted you must be paid to get out. Meanwhile, you can get manure and help much easier and cheaper than if you were at a distance.

Don’t put your labor or your money into expensive buildings: they only invite the tax assessor; but get proper buildings—they may be only shacks, but they should be well planned shacks, for you must have room enough to shelter your tools, wagons and farm machines, to house your stock, to store your crops, to sprout your seeds, to save your manure and to do indoor work during bad weather.

[1] There is only one good way to do this: cut back all the old wood and work out a new top on which to graft the fine apple scions.

If this book is to be of real service, we must be clear about the terms and expressions, so that, though you may know nothing about gardening when you begin to read it, you may know enough to earn a living from the soil when you finish it—and practice a little.

Many talk glibly enough about the soil, though few could tell exactly what it means. But market-gardeners must understand it, if they are to live by it. So it will be well to begin with the soil itself. Soil is that thin layer of earth that covers our globe like a blanket, and in which all that plants, beasts and men live upon, grows. If it were washed off, starvation would follow. The scientific explanation of the origin of this blanket, is, that it was formed by the action of heat, cold, water, frost, ice, low forms of vegetable life and tiny animals; sometimes working singly and sometimes all together. It is now established that the most of the face of the earth was once rock which was rubbed, crushed and ground by these forces until this surface layer was made. Then higher forms of life became possible. Not centuries only, but aeons of time, were necessary to accomplish this. Layer upon layer of finely crushed particles were exposed to the action of the air which completed the work the grinding of Nature’s forces had begun.

To follow out the story of the development of the soil is a most fascinating study, and if you have time from your other interests, you will be glad that you took it up; for though you may be a good farmer without this knowledge, you will be a better one with it, because you will be more intelligent and sympathetic. The soil-blanket holds within its warm folds all that is necessary for life, and the wonder of it all increases the more we learn about the millions of years and numberless forces employed to bring it to this state of perfection. If Nature has not wearied in her great work, there is poor excuse for the gardener to shirk or neglect the labor necessary to get the best possible results from any given piece of soil.

Nobody yet knows what are the best possible results from any given piece of soil; for since new discoveries are being made every year, we can show only what has so far been done with the best knowledge and skill at our disposal. One man in Pennsylvania is selling his soil; not his crop, at $1.50 per bushel to inoculate other ground.

The fine, fertile layer of earth that is called soil does not go very deep. It covers another layer which is harder, coarser, colder than itself, and this second layer is known as the subsoil, or that soil which is under the surface layer. In all temperate climes the difference is strongly marked, but in rainless, sun-dried regions there is often no difference to be noted. The intelligent farmer or gardener has the opportunity to decide just how much of that subsoil he will convert into surface soil, and the means of doing this will be disclosed later under the head of “Tillage.” The more of it he brings into use the greater his own profit, so that it pays to know how. In the early days of farming no effort was made to bring the subsoil into use, and consequently the returns from agriculture were small. Now we know better than that, and we also know how to get more out of the soil, whether surface or subsoil.

No soil, no garden; so the new gardener must get acquainted with the ground he intends to cultivate. It is not to be denied that soil which is in good tilth will be a great help to the beginner, but that is only to be had in well-cultivated gardens, which usually bring a good price when found in the market. Besides, with proper care and attention, any well situated soil can be made to yield good returns, and the gardener who is not disposed to give proper care and attention will find nothing in this book, or in any other, that will teach him how to succeed. The German idea is that a good soil is merely a place to put fertilizers (and German ideas on gardening are not to be despised). This is simply another way of repeating that, with brains and work any soil can be made to yield good returns. It is not safe, however, to trust to the “Light of Nature” as to what “proper care and attention” is, so here are the details.

If you are already settled and are planning to use your back yard for a garden, you will have to take the soil as it is, and by your own effort make it what it should be. There is no cause for despair no matter what it may be. A back yard that was trodden almost as compact as asphalt, and whose clods when dug had to be broken up with an axe, was made to yield a large variety of flowers the first season it was planted. So go ahead and do what you can with what you have. But, if you are hunting for a garden plot, bear in mind the importance of soil texture. You may thereby save yourself both time and labor.

The first thing is to examine the soil to determine whether it is sandy or clayey, dry or moist, light or heavy, well drained or wet; whether it is warm and live, or cold and dead. You will then learn what sort of cultivation is best for your particular plot of ground.

Because in your neighbor’s garden a certain treatment has been successful, is not saying that it will give the same results in yours, unless all the conditions are the same. For instance, his light, sandy loam needs little cultivation, and your soil may be hard and clayey. In that case you would have to make up the difference by careful work.

There are “gardeners” who think it is sufficient barely to break up the ground, add a little manure or other fertilizer, and scatter seeds. That they get any sort of results only shows how willing Nature is to give a return on the slightest labor. But Nature is wise as well as willing, and therefore gives lavishly to him only, who, by intelligent labor, deserves the best returns.

Therefore, learn the needs of your soil and supply them, and you will have no cause to complain of the niggardliness of Mother Nature to those of her children who feed at her bosom.

Plants often die for lack of moisture in the soil, and this condition cannot be satisfactorily remedied by the watering-can. The trouble lies back of such surface treatment and can only be cured by getting at the cause. The soil should be so prepared by tillage that it will catch and hold enough water to supply the plants with the moisture they need even through hot, dry spells. Plants draw their nourishment through their roots to their stems and leaves, and you need only examine the fine roots and rootlets of any plant to realize for yourself that such nourishment could not be taken in in a solid form. Plants are constantly drawing this moisture from the soil and as constantly giving it off into the air through their leaves. If you will watch any plant during a drought, you will see the leaves begin to shrivel before the stems or branches show signs of suffering. This is Nature’s effort to sustain the life of the plant as long as possible. The shrivelling of the leaves prevents the escape of the little moisture the plant can draw, and retains it longer within the plant’s system.

Deep plowing, the breaking up of the subsoil, the addition of decaying vegetable matter or humus, fertilizing with stable manure, and the raising of crops that can be frequently tilled, all help to add moisture to the soil. If you do these and the dry spell does strike you hard, so that it seems necessary to bring water, the soil will suck it and hold it, instead of letting it pass off quickly through the action of sun and air. Frequent stirring of the surface soil, to the depth of one inch, will make a little dry layer or top-coat through which the moisture does not readily escape. This is what is called a “mulch.” A mulch may also be an added coat of leaf-mould or stable-litter or any little dry covering which will prevent the moisture from escaping.

For early crops a light, sandy loam is best. A sandy loam is a loose, sandy soil made productive by good tillage, by mixing in humus and plant food or fertilizer. But when you haven’t the best, it is for you to counterfeit it as nearly as possible. The advantages of sandy loam are that it is early, easy to work, responds quickly to fertilizers and is readily kept in good tilth.